TRANSCRIPT: Mike Vrabel Press Conference at the League Meetings 3/31
Mike Vrabel's Press Conference: Offseason Strategy, Player Development, and 2026 Aspirations
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Here’s what New England Patriots head coach Mike Vrabel had to say from the league meetings in Arizona on Tuesday.
On how he feels about his free agency class and given what they accomplished, if they would have to draft for need:
“Well, I don’t think you should ever draft for need. You know, that’s not a position that you ever want to be in. We, again, I like, I love all our players. You know, certainly the free agents that we were able to acquire was a collaborative effort between the coaches and the personnel and myself, and being able to add guys that we believe in and that can help us. And then we’ll continue to add guys. And that’s kind of how this thing goes. But I do think that every year is different. There’s change in coaching staff, and the personnel, and the players. I like the guys that we were able to add, and we’ll continue to try to strengthen the roster.”
On if he likes where his wide receiver room is right now with [Romeo] Doubs, and [Kayshon] Boutte, and Kyle Williams?
“Again, there’s guys that we— certainly we targeted Romeo, with the consistency that he’s had and shown in his first 4 years in the NFL. And I think he’s gotten better. I think he’s improved each and every year. Certainly, you mentioned Kayshon. I think Pop [Douglas] is a player that’s going to really continue to grow and develop, and we have to find ways to get him the ball. Kyle, really excited. We talked about him just improving his play strength and that’s something that he’s trying to focus on here in the offseason. We know what his speed is and his release skills and, the ability to – we saw him go and track the ball down the field. So, there’s a lot of guys that we’re excited about.”
On the fact Stefon Diggs had 85 catches and 1,000-odd yards, and how does that get divvied up? Or if he needs more:
“You know, I don’t know how that gets divvied. I mean, it’s literally about targets, and so when you get targeted, and again, the efficiency, I really, we all appreciate what Stef did and really loved being able to coach him. But what has to happen is the efficiency in which he was able to catch the ball was impressive. So whether that’s Drake’s accuracy, ball location, or Stef’s ability to catch it. That’s something that we’ll have to recreate. And I’m not worried about the catches and the overall production. I think we can recreate that. We just have to be very mindful that the efficiency in which we throw and catch it is important.”
On what kind of player, teammate, person are the Bears getting in Garrett Bradbury:
“They’re getting somebody that loves football, loves his teammates. You know, he brought certainly a leadership to us that we needed last year. There was a consistency, durability. That’s what they’re getting.They’re getting a pro who’s going to be prepared. He’s going to make the calls. He’s going to communicate. But Garrett also loves the process of football, the offseason, the weekly preparation with his teammates and his coaches.”
On the fact that the owners are going to be voting on a proposal to allow more oversight to the replay center to overturn calls on the field in case the CBA expires with the officials, and if he feels that’s a better alternative, and if he feels it’s foolproof enough if it comes to that to avoid a 2012.
“I think they should let the coaches call their own fouls. You know what I mean? That’s what they should do. (smiles)”
On the fact that on X. TreVeyon [Henderson] quoted some Bible verses supporting a Chicago Bulls player who got released for some comments that he made. And I just— how does he measure the line between conduct detrimental to the team, which is why the Bulls released the player in their view, and allowing a 23-year-old to express his personal beliefs:
“I think there is a fine line. I’m going to tell you, I love TreVeyon. I love the person. He cares deeply about our team. He cares deeply about his faith. He cares deeply about his family, his wife, the people in our building. And so I want them to be able to express what they believe in their heart and in their mind, but also want to make sure that they’re educated. And we want to be inclusive. We want to— everything we want to do wants to provide an environment for people to, one, feel comfortable, but also to share their personal beliefs. And then also we represent the team, and we represent the organization.”
On if that’s something he’ll talk to him about or talk to the team about:
“I usually try to. I think that’s something that we try to do, Nicole [Yang], constantly. But there’s, it’s like somebody asked me last year, are you going to keep them off their phones? Like, yeah, keep you guys off your phones. There’s 19 phones lying on the table. We just want to educate them to— never going to tell them how to feel. Certainly want to make sure that they understand that their actions represent something more than just themselves. And so I do think there’s a fine line. We’re always talking about those kinds of things. We’re trying to educate them. No different than myself or you guys or my kids.”
On the signing of Reggie Hill, Alijah Vera-Tucker, and the fact it seems like there’s a focus on getting bigger, running the ball more consistently and how much is that, a focus of the offseason:
“Well, I mean, I felt like we— I just want to be more consistent. We, the Patriots, want to be more consistent running the football. So it isn’t like we’re going to run it every single play. It’s just that I felt like there were too many times where we wanted to run it, and it was just inefficient. Now we popped some, which were great. We had some explosives. And so then when you go back there, and you average it all out, it’s like, okay, but I want to be able to do it more consistently to allow for then some of the run actions in the passing game to really come alive and just to start to help us. It’s a tough league if you have to sit there and drop back and throw the football. As much as we did in the last game of the season.”
On the fact Vera-Tucker has had some injury issues and if having Ben Brown on the roster made him feel more comfortable about that:
“I mean, Ben’s— I don’t know if those two things necessarily, go hand in hand. I love Ben Brown. I love the teammate that he is. I love his ability to be versatile and play center and play guard and be prepared, and every week prepare as a starter. I love that about Ben. He’s a great teammate. You know, and then Alijah was just a player that we felt like had a skill set and talent – understand the injuries. And, so we just felt like we wanted to add his talent to the roster.”
On how Will Campbell will benefit from playing next to Alijah:
“I mean, I think just, guy that’s been out there, a guy that’s been a first-round pick. I think he’s, by all accounts, Alijah is a good teammate. Never coached him, but excited to add him to the O-line. Will’s a young player, will continue to develop, continue to improve, and we’re excited to keep working with him.”
On if a move for someone like AJ Brown would still be on the table at this point?
“We, we’ve talked about this since last January. We’re going to try to do everything we can to strengthen our roster through the draft, through free agency, multiple ways of player acquisition. So anything that we can continue to do to strengthen the roster, we’re going to try to do.”
On the fact they still have cap space available for any big moves if he wants to make them:
“I do a lot of things, focus on cap space is not one of them. I don’t. You know, I mean, we’ve been— Robert and Jonathan have given us all the resources that we’ve needed since I’ve been here to sign players, the amazing facility that we just moved into last Monday. So I’ll let Eliot and Ryan [Cowden] and Richard [Miller] and Matt Groh focus on the cap space.”
On how he feels, if he wants to acquire somebody in trade, surrendering draft picks, particularly in next year’s draft:
“I mean, compensation is compensation. You have to agree to something, and whether it’s capital in this year’s draft or, Cleveland’s proposing, or Cleveland had proposed something to extend, be able to trade 5 years out. That’s not going to be available to us. But, I just— however you can come to an agreement with another team, I’ve never really looked at it as this year, next year, how good the draft is in 3 years. Just try to come to an agreement. If you make a trade, you just want to try to come to agreement that both teams feel like they’re getting something that everybody’s happy.”
On as someone who played and was also involved with the NFLPA, how he would feel about the possibility of adding an 18th game:
“Yeah, I mean, I’ll support whatever both sides come to an agreement on. I will coach as many games as they want me to coach. I love, as you can see, coaching our football team. Last year, again, it was an end to a great year, and I’ll coach as many games as they ask me to coach.”
On with their tackle depth, with Vederian [Lowe] in San Francisco, and Thayer [Munford Jr.] is still a free agent, if adding depth to that position is a big priority for him:
“We have to— the league has to develop offensive linemen. We have to— we, it’s a critical, important position for the game to protect our quarterbacks that are so valuable to this league. So whether we draft them, whether we sign them, whatever we do, we have to be able to continue to develop offensive linemen to be able to protect our quarterback at such a critical position. So however we can continue to do that, I want to do that.”
On if we’ll see him at more Pro Days:
“Yeah, maybe. They’re going to wrap up, and we’ve got to get back for draft meetings. But then we’ve got some guys coming in on 30 visits. But if I can get back out there, I’ll get back out there.”
On what they got out of Garrett Bradbury, and what were the positives that he brought to the team:
“You know, just touching on his professionalism every day. He came to work, he was prepared, really led the offensive line. Great energy, connection with the quarterback. Is durability, consistency.”
On if he can give any kind of update on how Harold Landry is doing and how does he feel about his edge rusher position going forward:
“Harold continues to rehab. You know, I’m just disappointed, obviously, for him and for us because I’ve known Harold for quite a while. You know, a player I became really close with. We drafted him in Tennessee, did a great job for us there. And it’s unfortunate. I think that anybody that watched the tape could see, Harold before hurting his knee and then after. And so another player that cares deeply about the team, and his performance, and the impact that he makes. And so I was disappointed for him, but he, like everything else, works his tail off right now to get back. And so I don’t really know where it’s at right now because he’s going through the rehab process. With that being said, we’ll continue to strengthen each and every position, whether that’s the interior of the defensive line, that’s the edge, inside linebacker. So again, I like the guys that we have, but that doesn’t mean that we won’t continue to try to add to that position.”
On bringing in Dre’Mont [Jones] if he’s an edge only, or if he can shift him inside a little bit:
“There’s versatility. You know, there’s versatility that, it’s so critical when you only have 48 players on the active roster on Sundays. Eight of them are O-linemen. They’re not doing anything but blocking. Two of them are quarterbacks. Last year there was three of them. You got a kicker, a punter, a snapper. You start to get— the list gets limited there. So when you have guys that can play more than one position, linebacker or safety, and maybe a linebacker on third down or a sub backer, or you have an outside linebacker that can go inside on third down or passing downs. We, would love to have as many players that are versatile as possible.”
On the fact he made the decision to have the joint practice with the Eagles and what made him want to work with the Eagles and Nick Sirianni and what he hopes to get out that:
“I didn’t, and I didn’t think we were going to, but then Nick said something yesterday, so I guess we’re kind of forced into doing it. [Smiles] They’re a talented football team. I have a lot of respect for Nick. I have a lot of respect for Howie [Roseman], Mr. [Jeffrey] Lurie. Yeah, just their consistency over the last 4 or 5 years, with very good football… I felt like that would be a good opportunity for us to go against a really good football team.”
On when he stands over the offensive side, how much does he look for the composition of just what the personality is, even on that side of the ball, and whether that edge factor from a personality standpoint has somewhat dissipated with the departure of Stefon [Diggs], and whether he needs to imbue that aspect of it still on the offensive side:
“Well, certainly I think that identity is critical no matter what position that you play. I love Steph’s energy. Loved who he is as a person. Certainly we talked about the production. So I don’t— whether you play offense or defense, we’re going to need guys that have great identity and bring energy in their own way to the football team.”
On AJ Brown and the fact he has a past relationship with him and when he’s talking about him or just players overall, if he feels like he can distinguish between a player wanting to think about their legacy and being great, and how that doesn’t get misinterpreted so there’s not a problem on the team:
“Sure, I will say this. I love the relationship that I have with my players on our team and the ones on other teams that I’ve either coached or come in contact with. That’s the beauty of this league, and having played it and being able to coach it, the men and the people involved on the field are something that’s special that I hold very near and dear. I have communications with a lot of those players. Now, we all understand in professional sports, players that are talented and get to this level have some sort of ego to them. And there’s a balance, right? They have to have that edge. And so I think as a coaching staff, and whatever that is, you have to balance that edge to make sure that that’s helping the team. And we all have— everybody wants to excel. What receiver doesn’t want to catch the ball? What pass rusher doesn’t want to sack the quarterback? What DB doesn’t want to intercept the ball? Like, that’s just what’s— the running backs want to score touchdowns. That’s how this thing goes. So there’s a balance between their own personal success, and their mindset, and then how they can help the team.”
On the fact Robert Kraft said yesterday that he felt they overacheived last year and if he agrees with that:
“I talked to Robert about that. Him and I had a really good conversation.”
On the fact that he said it’s going to be a tougher schedule and a tougher, tougher road, and playoffs remain the goal and what he looks at this season:
“Obviously, championships will remain the goal. They will never change. I appreciate Robert’s support. But we want to win the division. We want to host playoff games, and we want to compete for championships. And so we got a taste of that. We saw what that looked like. We saw the environment that it created to be able to play those playoff games at home, which was unbelievable and so much fun. I just watched the reactions. I watched the videos because that’s the part that I really didn’t get to appreciate, coaching the game is seeing the fan videos, the videos from the fans, and that perspective. So, we’ll play whoever we have to play. We understand what this looks like. We’re going to play the division winner schedule, and that’s how it goes. Everything about this league is hard.”
On the fact 2002 was a difficult season for them, they got everybody’s best shot having accomplished what they did the year before:
“Again, we only have 17 games. I hope each and every week they’re getting our best shot, and we’re getting their best shot. We’re not going to have a job if we don’t do that.”
On how he feels about appearing on Hard Knocks in 2023?
“Can’t wait.”
On the fact connectivity was such a big theme among the players last year. Some said it was the closest team they’d ever been on, and how much thought at this point has he put into how to create that again:
“A lot. You know, I just— we spent a lot of time together, and we all come from different backgrounds. Some of the players are going to be coming back. Some of them are new. We’re going to add rookies and other players to the team, so continue to try to find ways to do that without being, never want to make it a gimmick. That’s important to me that it’s not gimmicky, that what we do is authentic and real and genuine.”
On the fact, to that point, there were different elements that they put up on the walls, mottos, slogans, etc.
“Not that much. There was not many signs. You guys saw them all.”
On if he keeps that stuff around and if he builds a new colture in different ways:
“I don’t think build a new culture. I think you just try to enhance on the culture and you believe in the identity, honesty, connection, respect, accountability, things that we want to be … winning, competitiveness. Those aren’t up on a wall anywhere. You know what I mean? Those are just what we want to be as people, and then try to make connections by the stuff that we feel like is important.”
On what’s the biggest thing he wants to see from Drake Maye in his third year:
“I think his ability to control the game at the line of scrimmage, whether that’s operationally getting us into a better play, to continue to take ownership of the offense. I mean, he’s an extension of Josh [McDaniels] and Josh sends the play in, we want Drake to own it, to own the play and, bring it to life with cadence, communication, all the motion and all the things, orchestrate, continue to do that. There’s nothing physically— he’s very talented, so continue to push him to lead and to try to orchestrate and conduct the offense.”
On the fact he mentioned the new facility and how that setup can help what they do:
“Well, just from an efficiency standpoint, I think it’s, from an energy, I think when our players come in on April 20th, I think there’s going to be an energy. They’re going to enjoy coming to work just from how nice it is, the functionality, the space, all those types of things. Be a great place for learning, great place to develop our players. And just the weight room to the training room to the locker room, cafeteria, just the meeting space that we have is going to be really nice.”
On the potential for replacement officials, the New York command center, the officiating center, in his time paying very close attention to how they adjudicate calls, how he views …
“Google that.”
On how he feels the officiating center does:
“I think that they do as good a job as they possibly can in the time that they have allotted to them. There are some calls that are very difficult. You know, I think the big one is the quarterback, whether it’s the tuck or the fumble or the pass, it’s— Stretch and I just be like, whatever the call on the field is, we’re going to let that one stand because that’s probably not getting overturned. So I think that they try to use a standard of clear and obvious. And the biggest thing is that we understand what they believe to be clear and obvious.”
On his experience last year, bringing in guys that he knew and figuring out guys that he didn’t know and how he navigates between that and if there’s a risk bringing in a guy that he doesn’t know:
“I think that there’s… you just have to be very careful. I mean, in free agency, I think that you’re referring to…it happens so quick. You’re looking at the player on film. You can watch as many games as you want to watch, but you really don’t have an opportunity to know who that person is. Unlike the draft, where you have so many touch points from our scouts, from our coaches, from pro days, from visits, and combine. So you just have to be very careful with the type of people that you’re bringing in in free agency.”
On what it’s like having Kevin Byard on his team on and off the field?
“Just a professionalism, a comfort. You know, I would say that the consistency in which he operates and functions has been very impressive over the time that I’ve known Kevin.”
On the fact he said that he thinks that he’s a little bit more tame now compared to when he first started at Tennessee:
“We’ll have to see when he gets here.”
On how his relationship evolved over those 6 years:
“I mean, he started out— I was, you know, a first-time head coach, and then I had to be able to implement a program that I felt like was best for our team and what they needed in Tennessee. You know, I guess I’m as tame as I need to be.”
On the fact he shows a fondness for the players that he’s had in the past, and how does he guard against having a blind spot for those guys:
“We always want to bring in talented players. You know, whether we— knowing them is important, but also talent is important too. So again, we’ll try to manage what we feel like are the people that we bring in and that we know and compared to their talent level.
On how seriously does he take players’ concerns on that NFLPA report card, especially with a team plane:
“Don’t want to focus on the report card. I want to focus on what our players say to me and to Stretch and anybody in our organization. We constantly are asking them… we have a leadership group that we believe in and that we trust. We won’t be able to make every recommendation. We won’t be able to do every single thing that they want to do. But we listen to them, and we try to add things to the training room. We try to add equipment. I know for a fact on numerous occasions players have asked about different modalities in the training room. I’ve gone to Jim, asked him to order it, gone to Stretch, Jonathan and Robert have gladly okayed it. Something came across my desk the other day. ‘Hey, we added this last year. It works out so good, we want to add another one.’ So we’re constantly trying to get feedback from the players on things that we can do to help them do their job.”
On when Christian Gonzalez enters the year they have an opportunity to pick up his 5th-year option…
“If we haven’t picked it up, we should pick it up.”
On if he wants to extend him:
“We want to make sure that we draft extremely well, and then we identify the guys that we want to keep with us and that have earned long-term extensions with us. Christian, Gonzo is certainly one of those players. But I can’t comment on the negotiations.
On the fact the last time we talked to him he mentioned challenging his staff to come back with new ideas and who he turns to, whether it’s read a book, mentors, to come up with his own, new ideas for how to keep things fresh:
“I think that our staff and Stretch, obviously, different coaches around our league or other leagues – Joe [Mazzulla] does such a great job with the Celtics, just the start that they’ve been able to have without Jason [Tatum] has been really, really impressive. So a lot of communications with him and other coaches around the league, and a lot of thought, I think, try to bounce ideas off of, really just come up with something, think about it, give it some time. How do you enhance it? How do you— there’s a lot of time in the offseason. But try to be intentional and just never want to be gimmicky with what we do with the players.”
On the balance of player development, when it comes to a guy who’s got versatility, trying not to give them too much as they get into the league:
“Well, you’re talking about a young player, Buck, or you talk— Yeah, just making sure that they don’t get overloaded and that they can get proficient at something. And then I’d say the better they do, the more we would try to give them, whether that is an offensive lineman that may play 2 positions or a receiver that may play multiple positions. But certainly, we try to figure out what the player does best and do that, and then see what else they can do to enhance that.”
On if that’s pretty easy to identify when they start to swim a little bit:
“I think so. I think when you start to see them slow down, when a player— one coach, which I thought was really insightful, was like, ‘Sometimes you can’t tell the difference between a player that doesn’t know what to do or one that’s afraid to do it.’ They’re both pretty slow and not very reactive. And so we have to try to measure what that looks like on the field and then maybe pull back on some stuff.”
On the fact the team released Josh Dobbs last week, and if they’d like to add a third quarterback to the roster at some point:
“Yeah, we need a third arm and, try to find a young guy that we can develop and potentially add to the roster, whether that’s on the 53-man roster or the practice squad.”
On if that speaks to Drake’s maturity and development that he can take on a younger guy:
“I think that’s probably pretty accurate.I think that I’m really appreciative of what Josh did for us coming in last year, with Drake going into his second year and communicated that with Josh and said, I think it’s just a different situation now. So that’s probably pretty accurate.”
On the fact they need tight ends bad:
“Well, I love them. Give me 9 of them. Bring as many tight ends as we can get.”
On if that’s going to be something he looks at in April:
“I hope. Yeah, I hope there’s a good— again, I think just trying to find the right guy. There’s different.. Some of them are receiving, some of them are more in line with the line of scrimmage, some of them a little bit of both. So I think we’ll just try to come up with the one that fits us best and see where we can draft them.”
On with the 31st pick if he feels that should be an immediate impact player or if he’s comfortable taking a player—
“Best player available, hopefully. Maybe we trade up, maybe we trade out. I don’t know. But, I love being able to work with Eliot and Ryan. Eliot and Ryan, their staff, coaching and try to bring that together. I’m trying to bring the coach’s perspective on a player and the personnel side together to bring the best person in there for our football team. Thank you, guys.”
(EDITOR’S NOTE: This transcript was done based on the available footage and is subject to typographical errors. If you spot anything, please let me know in the comments below.)
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